Agreed. Oklahoma gets cold in the winter. When that wind gets going, man worse than AA at times. That said for a WR OU or OSU are GREAT for NFL prep, it'd be more surprising for him not to look there. There's also something going on with Ole Miss this year, every year there seems to be a random hot recruiting school. This year it's Ole Miss. I've been saying for months this one's probably not going to go our way, best of luck to him.

Where exactly did this recruitment go wrong? Obviously he favored us for a long time while maintaining he wanted to visit the Oklahoma schools. Then he said the Michigan coaches hadn't been in contact for a while and suddenly he's interested in Ole Miss. Am I missing something?

I think this staff chilled out on chasing him because like a lot of blue chip players who have a very me first attitude it gets to a point where you start wasting energy and time into something that maybe isn't the right fit to begin with.

I am not saying that Treadwell is a bad guy but he is 17 years old and all 17 year old kids are in need of molding. But when it starts looking like a guy is possibly going to disrupt team chemistry his attitude starts looking like its not worth the talent. It's one guy.

I am also not saying that the coaches think Treadwell is some horrible person but that He had a lot of me first mentality hence the comment that the Michigan coaches work showing him a enough love.

I think there comes a time when you have invested so much time into a particular person to show them how much you want them to be a part of your program and yet they still seem to want to look around while the rest of the team seems like damn near family already.

I know what a lot of people are going to say, but what about all the rest of these players like Dawson And McQuay and green that are all and have been on the fence for a long time. True but You have to admit that they have all been very up front or classy about it or in Dawsons case had a very real 17 year old moment, but none of them have acted quite the way Treadwell has.

Funny thing is if I were a kid like Treadwell that wanted to go to a major program that had a good school and was on the rise I think that Michigan would be easily in my top group if not the leader considering the depth chart.

There are very few positions in football where you can come in and be THAT GUY Neatly like you can at positions like receiver. And you would think that Treadwell would see he could step on to the field next year and start.

Everyone keeps saying he had a "me first" attitude. What did he do specifically that drew those criticisms? Just seems like a kid that wanted to take his time and make sure he was sure if his decision. Wonder if he was an LB or some other non-stereotypical "diva" position if people would say the same thing?

Dude likes attention. It's been very obvious from his Twitter account for a long time. I mean, I don't have a Twitter account or visit Twitter more than once a month, and I know about his dramatic turns trying to rile up fan bases. But when I've said stuff along the lines of what EZMIKEP said here, everybody downvotes it. Maybe now that he's eliminated Michigan people around here will be willing to consider that this kid might just be a diva.

If you're basing someone's character solely off of things like Twitter feeds, you could probably call Shane Morris a "diva" too. You don't amass 19k+ followers by not craving attention. And yet, we're all cool with Shane, so what's the difference with Laquon?

I would try to explain the difference, but the only thing I know about Shane Morris's twitter is that he uses it to talk about Glee. Is he routinely dramatic? Does he pretend he's going to commit to different schools to rile people up? Does he dissimulate in any way to rile people up? I'd be happy to revise my opinion of him if you want to point me to some tweets where he does stuff like that. If not, maybe those questions can point you in the direction of what the difference is.

they've been 1st rounders too (blackmon and bryant). I didn't realize OK state has had 2 double digit win seasons of the last three (OU is 3 for 3). Oklahoma is traditionally better and has just as good of an offense for wideouts, but I guess both are good fits.

Michigan gets four star (and sometimes five star) players at those positions as often as they do at other positions. Aside from the Rich Rod era when recruiting was a bit down across the board, Michigan is doing as well as they always have at those positions. Four stars and occasional but rare five stars.

Is "elite" talent? Are you a scout? Are you basing it on Stars? What about Deveon Smith? Devin Funchess? Amara Darboh? Jake Butt? I just can't believe people who continue to seem to know whether we have recruited "elite" talent...

While I agree with the premise of your post, I don't think all of your examples fit that description. David Terrell was regarded as one of the prize recruits in that top-rated 1998 class, along with Drew Henson. He came to Michigan with a lot of hype and pretty much lived up to it almost from the start.

The other two players definately fit better with your idea of not knowing what we have until we get them on the field. Mario Manningham was regarded as talented, but raw out of HS. Edwards was a meh 3 star legacy with little expectations and frankly played that way for the first 2 and a half years of his college career.

How about its been a really long time since we've had an elite WR and even longer for an elite RB. And I'd call elite like top 10 at your position. 4-star is more really good, than elite especially since most sites have like 20-30 4-star WRs

I'm obviously excited about the future - having a lockdown OL will make up for a lot of things - but what we have right now is a far cry from having the likes of Edwards, Manningham, Arrington, Avant, and Breaston on (or near) the same roster...

To get a lot of 4 -5 star players. The past 5-6 years of Michigan football probably hasn't helped. Hoke is rebuilding and doing a great job presumably, we have reeled in more 4-5 star players than Michigan has done in a long time. Offensively we are in transition, top offensive talents really don't know how we will look offensively.

This is naive. If you accept that recruiting rankings matter, it has been years since Michigan got a kid that was ranked within the top 20ish at the position of wide receiver. JeRon Stokes and Jeremy Gallon (barely) fit that bill a few years ago and they were undersized for our current needs. We've had no problem getting commits rated within the top 5 or 10 at their position at every position except for WR and RB, although Derrick Green may change that for RB. As of next year, we will be relying on having Darboh or Chesson play above their rankings. And those gentlemen were rated higher than our current crop of commits.

However, a great QB can certainly get the job done with serviceable WRs and a strong line - we see this in the NFL often. The NFL's top receivers rarely seem to be playing in the Super Bowl.

Was in the Rivals 250, the 30th best receiver, and had a 4 star ranking. I grant you that he doesn't have Treadwell's hype and wasn't considered an "elite" talent, but eveyrone one here with the mentality that we'll have to "make do" with Darboh for the next few seasons seem to be underselling the kid a bit. He's a good football player.

Chesson, granted, looks to be more of a project and may or may not see significant playing time over his career, but I don't understand all the pessimism over Darboh's future.

Being recruited by some if the most historic football programs in the country wouldn't be. Don't be a dick, the kid didn't want to be at Michigan so that is the end of it. I hope he graduates and plays an injury free career, at least serious injury as minor injuries always happen.

By the way, the historic programs was just a reference to Michigan and Oklahoma. Ole miss and Oklahoma state both are we're lacking in comparison in that department.

Yea I know right? Why hasn't he committed to Illinois, Northwestern or NIU???
Kids leave their state all the time and go across the country, especially when you're a top talent.
I'm disappointed he wont be donning the Maize and Blue but it's the nature of the business. Time to move on.

WilliSC48, It's not that he chose another school over Michigan. It's that he, and several others, have Ole Miss in their final 3-6. What could possibly draw them to such a place? Their reputation as a fine academic institution? Their reputation for having a winning tradition? Their reputation for putting WR's into the NFL?

Reputation as one of the most fun schools with very attractice women in a fairly nice town with nice weather and possibly one of the best football gameday traditions with tailgating in the grove and a team that plays in the best conference in CFB with what is looking like an up-and-coming coach.

I mean Georgia ranks as a top 5-6 party school from sources as diverse as Princeton Review to Playboy. Are the women really any better looking in Mississippi than Georgia? I only hear good things about Athens, and Georgia's (as well as schools like Bama and such) have great or greater football gameday traditions. And players don't really get to tailgate, so I'm not sure how that would be an attraction.

And with all that you get top ranked football programs, as well as schools that came out of the 19th century at least a little faster than Ole Miss.

If he was saying he like LSU, Georgia, Bama, Florida, etc. with Michigan, Oklahoma, heck even Okie St. which has been good for a few years and runs a really receiver friendly offense, most people would go "Michigan is better, but ok, I understand." I'm not sure they're not more comparable to saying "boy, Arizona State looks like the place for me."

Really don't understand this. Oklahoma State? Where Mike Gundy is about to be exposed as a mediocre coach who does a great job picking assistants and coordinators before they end up leaving for HC jobs? They are the Wisconsin of the Big12. Oklahoma? (Or should I say choklahoma?) Where Big Game Bob just cannot win any big game. Always inexplicably high expectations for no reason over there. I see that program going no where but south in the next few years. And OLE MISS!?!? Sure they looked a lot better in SEC play, BUT IT'S OLE MISS!!!

has produced Dez Bryant and Justin Blackmon in the last few years. They run the Air Raid. It's not exactly insane for a WR to want to go there. Same with Oklahoma. And Ole Miss has one of his best friends.

He's going to be exposed 8 years into his career? Isn't picking good assistants what coaching is all about? Hoke isn't exactly an offensive mastermind and has one of the best DCs in the country. Oklahoma won the B12 this year and won plenty of big games. Don't understand the Ole Miss hate.

The twitter feed of 17-18 year old often times not the best sources of information. Maybe he changes his mind, but I trust the information coming from an interview with a reporter than a 140 character response to someone on twitter. Best to just move on as the writing has been on the wall with this one for awhile.

I understand your point but that still doesnt explain why he would answer "are you officially visiting michigan" with yes and then post it for all of his followers to see. Not saying we're still in it but according to the man himself he still plans on on taking an official to michigan.

Ty Isaac was just waiting for a commitable USC offer... once he got that he immediately jumped on it and we were only in on Brionte Dunn because of the OSU mess and scandal. If it wasn't for that there wouldn't have even been a a flirtation. Those 2 had NOTHING to do with some inability to "close the deal".

Beyond the early discussion about Treadwell, Lemming resurfaces the academic issue around the 19 minute mark in regards to Crete-Monee. The issue isn't so much the kids, but the HS and it's paperwork process.

If he indeed is an attention whore(for lack of a better term) then I say let's move on and not pay any more attention to this guy. I want guys that want to go to U-M, not have be begged and coddled into coming.

He just seems like a guy who is a candidate to be a prima donna, that doesn't work well under Hike & Co., maybe the coaches noticed too much of this from him and cooled off pursuing him.

U-M program will survive and so will I, personally, I don't like guys like that, no matter how good they think they are

He doesn't want to come to Michigan, so he's a prima donna? If we're being consistent, I assume that makes Will Campbell a prima donna too, since he took a bunch of fake visits? No one on this board has ever spoken to Treadwell, and no one would be calling him a prima donna if he ended up at Michigan. It's really pathetic the way people think they can glean a kid's character based on whether or not he wants to attend their school.

And, for the record, I want the best players we can possibly get who don't have genuine character issues, even if the coaching staff has to beg and plead to make it happen.

If Michigan misses on Green, there will be a growing trend of missing on skill position players. I think part of this is our two best recruiters are DL coaches.

I think the other part is that skill position players like to see how they will be used on the field. Since our offense needed to adapt to Denard, these kids couldn't really see how the offense will look during a game situation.

I'm afraid it's going to be the polar opposite of RR recruiting. He recruited a ton of talent (mostly) on offense as compared to this staff and all the defensive talent they are recruiting. It would be nice to see more of a happy medium.

He did not recruit a ton of offensive talent. In fact he didn't really recruit much talent anywhere. You build championship football teams from the inside out and Hoke and his staff have been pulling very talents OL, DL and linebackers. Eventually, the skill positions will come, though I think the guys we have been getting are pretty good.

What a dumb statement. We have a 5 star qb and good talent at TE but since you want to see wr and rb you ask a question that eliminates all skill positions except for the two you want to talk about. Lets also ignore the coaches ability to recruit a 3 star nose tackle that blew up to be 5 star and contributed as a true freshman. Shame on hoke for bringing in a top class last year and an even better class this year. What a joke. Also we have another 5 star at a skill position you specifically want that I will eat my hat if he doesn't commit here.

This is Hoke's first full recruiting class, and the poster you're replying to is making a valid point. The rumors were that Devin taking over at QB sparked interest in WRs looking at UM because they could see that without Denard there was going to be a whole lot more airing the ball out.

And the Hoke regime is recruiting a ton (literally) of talent on offense. It's not that a monsterous O-line makes second tier skill positions great or anything, but it changes a lot when there are holes to run through and time for receivers to get open. Or, it's difficult to build the roof of a house before you lay the foundation.

I couldn't disagree more. Hoke has already brought in a top quarterback, several talented TE's, the best set of OL over two classes I can remember, a stable of RB's that fit his offense (and possibly Green). The only offensive position that's missing is WR. I think Dukes is going to surprise a lot of people and Chesson and Darboh could be very good players. Give it time - he just got here.

Ouch. Please refrain from trashing the kid, he's making the decision he thinks is best for him. Gonna have to see the final(ish) product on offense before we can really show some of these skill guys what it could look like with them involved.

While that would be awesome, he is basically Alabama's to lose with UCLA and ASU not far behind. It's hard to sway elite WR's halfway through December. Marquez North would be another WR to hope for, but he will most likely end up at Clemson or North Carolina.

Still looking for our first difference maker at RB/WR since 2007. With all due respect to Hemingway (injuries limited his career), Stonum (suspensions, dismissal), and Fitz (production dropped off a cliff), Michigan had playmakers even near the level of Hart/Manningham/Arrington for too long. Derrick Green would satisfy this need I believe and form a formidable tandem with Deveon Smith.

Is it safe to say that academics did not much play much of a role in his recruitment? Yes, just as college athletics should be... having recruits pick their "universities" based on everything but academics. What a sham. If they want to "get paid" and don't want to be in the classroom with real students, don't make them. But to keep up with this facade of the "student-athlete" in revenue sports (at least, it might be a worse situation for non-revenue sports) is just a goddamn shame.

You see, the kids these days, they listen to the rap music, which gives them the brain damage. With the hippin' and the hoppin' and the bippin' and the boppin', they don't know what the jazz is all about. Y'see, jazz is like Jello pudding...

Leaving Treadwell out of this, it's safe to say that many good HS athletes are average students, some even less. If they are making a college choice based on academics, I can see why they may not want to choose UM or Cal or whoever. I'm not going to question someone for turning down a school they couldn't dream of getting admitted to except for athletics in favor of one they might have.

stinks to lose such a talented guy, but i'm not entirely surprised. high school decision-making is often based on what is happening at the moment, and our struggles in the passing game this year probably made LT think there were better places for him.

Just last weekend LaQuon said Michigan is still among his final four schools despite the rumors saying otherwise. He also said, "I still contact Coach Heck and I saw Coach Hoke speak at the banquet. We said a few words and he said hello to my mom, so everything is still the same." Apparently, that's no longer the case. I'm disappointed, but good luck to the kid.

This is me reading way too much into a 17 year old kids twitter, just for the funsies:

This report comes out saying he won't visit, and he's eliminated us.

He tweets 5 hours ago that he will visit us.

His most recent tweet is saying that he's going to wear number #1 next year in college, and he's going to be announcing soon.

That seems innocent enough, but he doesn't wear #1 in high school. Now it's possible he just wants to wear #1 in college, but considering how big of a deal #1 is at Michigan, there could be some connection there.

Now I know you're all saying, "But MichiganMan2424, if this is true, why would he come out and say he's eliminated Michigan? Also, you're an idiot for reading this much into a kid's twitter."

Well the second part is true, but regardless.

We all know WRs can be huge divas. While Treadwell hasn't done anything wrong in his recruiting process, he hasn't helped himself with that diva tag. And what would be more diva then at your announcement, pulling out a Michigan hat of a team you said you eliminated and committing there?

Now I'm not saying I expect this, but in the short time I've followed recruiting, if any prospect were to do this, it'd be Treadwell.

At the beginning of the month, there were reports that he was considering Ole Miss to the point where he tweeted, per SBNation, "Oxford: Moncreif, Cooley, Treadwell SEC !! #2013 Special Year ..."

So, there's that as well.. He was also asked to retweet a response if Ole Miss was his top choice and he did. The more you read about how his recruitment has gone, the more you scratch your head ,I think.

If the visit mentioned on Twitter actually happens, then Michigan is still likely a consideration if nothing else. We may be eliminated from his top three, but if he visits as he claims he will, we're not eliminated per se, although our chances may not be great. Regardless of where he ends up, he'll do well and I wish him well.

Many people don't want Al at all... but I want to see him actually run his offense with his players before I throw him under the bus... Meyer had the balls to give Dunn the ultimatum, otherwise I think that Dunn would have visited Michigan and committed on that visit.

whatever. i'm not surprised, and we don't need him. hoke has focused on what we need most right now, which is winning the war in the trenches. elite o-lines will get us the elite rb's we want, like green.

I think we do need a receiver with Treadwell's skill set, but life will go on without him. We will have an easier time attracting elite receivers once they see a QB who can accurately throw the ball. We didn't have one of those since Henne graduated, hopefully Gardner will become one next year.

Consider the possibility that M soured on Treadwell, rather than vice-versa. After all, the kid did say M's coaches hadn't been in touch with him recently. Could be there's just something they don't like about him.

Hoke and Company don't seem like the types to coddle and placate to a recruit. WR's are histroically "divas" and especially elite talent types. I'm sure other schools are much better as ass-kissing, which probably sounds great to an 18 year old.

probably has nothing to do with it. I'm sure they do their fair share of that. If they didn't we wouldn't have the class thet we have. We are taking about 17-18 yr old kids...........that wanttheir ass kissed and want to be coddled. Some more than others

Sam Webb and others have been saying for months that LT wants to play in a spread offense, and that he's got family in the Oklahoma region. For some people, though, facts don't matter. A certain portion of all fanbases simply refuses to believe that any highly-rated recruit doesn't really want to attend their school.

Him the best but I think we'll be fine. Why are ND amd Bama playing for a national championship? Is it because they have elite wide receivers? Simple answer...No. People need to quit freaking out and assuming because a recruit doesn't pick Michigan it's because they are getting paid, or don't have the grades, or Hoke must have quit recruiting them because he "saw something..." It's okay for a player to not choose Michigan...there will be others my brothers.

I will say, though, that Alabama has elite talent on the offensive side; those RBs will be in the NFL soon enough. ND is playing because apparently South Bend residents didn't feel their souls were that valuable and traded them in.

But the primary reason for their being is because of elite defenses, not because they have Julio Jones, or Michael Floyd or Golden Tate out wide...both of those teams are very good up front, building a great defense as well as being tough up front is what hoke is more concerned with.

To be fair, Jones was a key part of the Crimson Tide's 2010 title. And ND could definitely use guys like Tate and Floyd; what held them back was a poor defense. Having both a dynamic offense and defense is better than just half of the equation.

I don't know what his star rankings were but that Amari Cooper kid seems pretty elite. Also Julio Jones was. And I don't think you should be making your point with ND, as they seem way overmatched and completely misplaced in the championship game. When I've watched them their offense this season has looked like total dogshit, not exactly what I think our coaches are striving for here...

But I do agree with your other point. Not everyone is going to come here, and it's not just because we're the only clean program around. It's just the way it goes, and we shouldn't assume some kid is lining his pockets just because he doesn't commit to the good guys.

But again, of course Bama has a lot of good players on offense, but that is not their identity. As far as ND goes, I dislike them a lot, but Bama is not an unbeatable force, and while I don't anticipate them beating Bama, Kelly has proven to be a winner at every stop, I wouldn't be shocked to see them win. I never thought Ohio would beat Miami a few years ago, strange things happen, ND has a tough defense too.

I would definitely consider Amari Cooper (#6 rated WR), Chris Black #8, Kevin Norwood #22 and Kenny Bell #40 as a potent collection and hellish in combination with their great OL and NFL backs in Lacy and Yeldon. Their WR have speed to exploit the DBs when they get sucked into play action.

ND has Eifert, tough front 7 on D, and 10 years of luck. Hopefully we get the playmakers with our line so we don't need so much luck.

You have to go all the way back to a Chad Henne led offense for the last time we had a WR friendly offense. Our offense is supposedly changing in the future, but any 2013 elite WR has not seen much evidence on the field. Add in the fact that Hoke and Staff seem to have a better rapport with linemen and linebackers, and I'm not surprised we are mainly landing 3* receivers. Hoke seems to mention almost weekly how the play of the offensive and defensive lines are the most important part of the team, which I'm sure plays well with diva WRs.

Hoke is a trenches guy for sure, but the real reason why he is going after so many linemen is because he inherited atrocious line depth on both sides of the ball, and recruits see the potential for early playing time. Going forward I expect that Hoke will continue to recruit well in the trenches but he won't be grabbing so many linemen in each class.

Not surprising. A bit weird with the change in attitude toward UM, but that happens. It does make me wonder where the impact offensive players will be coming from in the future, but offensive stars can pop up from unexpected places. I will reiterate my earlier concern that this staff seems able to recruit in the trenches and the defensive side quite well, but outside of Morris I've not seen a truly dynamic offensive player be recruited on that side of the ball.

No bitterness toward the kid; he made a decision that benefits him, and I'd do the same. Still a little surprised, though, when you hear kids talk about academics and the college experience and then pick schools that are a clear step below other schools recruiting them. But then again, I'm sure he'll find a good fit wherever he winds up.

People worried about skill position players should look at Ryan Lindley and Ronnie Hillman. Two players who weren't recruited very highly that put up monster numbers in the Borges offense. If we can land Green to go along with Gardner/Morris, things should be just fine. Defense wins championships. You don't have to put up big numbers if the other team can't score. I think we will be just fine.

I don't think the sky is falling with respect to skill position players the way everyone else here is. Between Chesson, Darboh, York, Dukes, Butt, Funchess, Hill, and probably one of Lewis/Stribling (also possibly Hayes in the slot), I think we're going to have multiple talented receiving targets next year and beyond. It sucks to not have any ultra elite blue chips but such is life. Not to mention, once the O line is in place and we're mauling people, it's not that difficult to get open for receivers when they have tons of time. I'm not super worried here...

Honestly more disconcerting to me is that we don't have a QB in the class before Morris. If for some reason he doesn't pan out (God forbid...) and Devin doesn't get his RS, we could be in for a tricky situation.

Also let's not forget... Treadwell isn't committed anywhere yet. Dawson had seemingly eliminated UMich awhile back (or vice versa?) and yet here he is in the class. Obviously not the same situation but things change at the drop of a hat with recruiting it seems...

It always seemed to me that Morris was the main draw for Treadwell. He wants to play with a really good QB. If we eliminate Ole Miss as him visiting his friend, then it's just the two Oklahoma schools. I don't know who they have coming in at QB, but I'll guess they are not quite as impressive as Morris was before he got Mono and couldn't play.

Indeed, Treadwell seemed to cool toward Michigan around the time Morris dropped off the hype radar. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think Shane played after the Pioneer game, and he shouldn't have played in that.

Not surprised, I figured this would happen eventually. When he was all in love with Michigan for a few months and didn't pull the trigger. Good luck to him wherever he goes.

Until the current staff can show that they will give players a chance to be succesful it will be hard to recruit the best players at skill positions. Michigan has put WR and RB's in the NFL in the past but honestly that staff is long gone. Coach up what you have

going to come here right? He talked less and less about wanting to come to Michigan. The writing was on the wall for a while. Let's just focus on Green and McQuay. I'll be happy with just one of these guys.

Whose to say he's not still playing. Those other schools better not get their hopes up on him. He'll probably end up at Florida. And he's never been there. I won't believe he's at a school until he signs there in February.

On the brighter side, this Friday I received my acceptance from the Univeristy of Michigan. As a reward and an early Christmas present, I decided to validate my fandom by officially joining mgoblog. I am excited by the team being assembled for my first year at UofM (despite missing out on Treadwell) , and about the prospect of being a contributing member of this board. Go Blue!

Mr Treadwell is NOT a done deal. I will wait and see if he decides against us, until then, can anyone talk Manningham into speaking to him and get him to commit and end recruitings version of Peyton Place and give us a happy ending.